WSU might ax its forestry program, leaving the Evergreen state with no undergrad program

Washington is called The Evergreen State, but its only accredited undergraduate program in forestry is in danger of being axed.

The major at Washington State University has only about 20 students, and might be slashed as part of a general reform of the school's less-popular offerings. Ten years ago forestry had 50 majors.

"It's not as attractive as it was," said Keith Blatner, chairman of the Department of Natural Resource Sciences. "Sometimes forestry is strictly associated with cutting trees or being part of the forest products industry, which is not an accurate perspective."

Across the state in Seattle, the University of Washington's forestry program, which has 216 undergraduate and 146 graduate students, was previously redesigned to focus more on environmental issues than on traditional studies and training of loggers.

Consequently, the Washington bachelor's degree is no longer accredited by the Society of American Foresters, although the graduate degree is.

Washington State President Elson Floyd has told deans to evaluate the strength of their programs, with a goal of focusing scarce resources on majors where the school is a leader or has the potential to lead. Academic departments were also asked to cut 1.5 percent from their budgets, and the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences is considering doing that by cutting forestry.

Officials stress that no final decision has been made.

Area timber companies and government agencies won't run out of foresters because the universities of Idaho, Montana and Oregon State have large forestry programs, as do many other colleges around the country.

Timber giant Weyerhaeuser gets many of its foresters from East Coast universities like Yale and North Carolina, as well as regional schools, spokesman Frank Mendizabel said.

Critics say it is ridiculous for a state where 50 percent of the land is covered in forests to be without an accredited bachelor's program in forestry.

"I think it is imperative as a land grant university that they be working in that area," said Scott Swanson, a WSU graduate and vice president of West Fork Timber Co. of Tacoma.

Of the three foresters in his company, two are from Washington State, Swanson said. Killing the program would be shortsighted because many foresters are nearing retirement, Swanson said.

"No matter which part of the forestry dynamic you are working with, harvesting or taking care of the forest, we need foresters," said Swanson, a past officer in the Washington chapter of the Society of American Foresters, a group founded in 1900 to advance the science and practice of forestry.

Blatner agreed, saying many academic programs go through periods of high and low popularity.

"What may be up now may not be up five years from now," he said. "You don't build a new program in any discipline overnight. One of the strengths of the university system is we are slow to change."

Bruce Mackey of the state Department of Natural Resources is on the advisory board for Washington State's College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, and said the university wants to focus on areas of national and international excellence.

"WSU's perspective is that forestry is not in that category," Mackey said.

Some people believe forestry programs have fallen out of favor with students because the name suggests clearcutting and other destructive practices.

As a result, said Bruce Bare, forestry dean at the University of Washington, many programs have changed their names in recent years. Washington's program is now called the College of Forest Resources.

"Students are interested in environmental or natural resources management but are not attracted to something titled forestry or forest management," Bare said.

Unlike the name change, he added, reconfiguring the curriculum was a "traumatic" experience.
-The Associated Press